The Last Day... back to reality

Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th January 2017

Club la Santa, Lanzarote

We were up in time for morning gymnastics and then headed straight out to collect our mountain bikes. Claire ended up with the same bike she'd had the other day, but mine was a different one, so more tinkering and lubing was required. The sky was a bit overcast but we soon warmed up as the route turned out to be quite hilly, which shouldn't have come as a surprise to us as we knew there were a load of volcanoes over there. 

It soon became apparent that Claire wasn't really in the mood for cycling, as she was lagging behind, and not to take selfies this time. In fact, I don't know how she was managing to cycle so slowly without overbalancing! However, I don't think she could stand the shame of turning back so we carried on along gravelly tracks to a small village called Tenesar by the coast behind a volcano. This involved dropping right back down to sea level down what felt like a very long steep road that was very bumpy and shook our bingo wings quite unpleasantly. Unfortunately, there was no ice cream shop in the village, so we watched the waves breaking over the rocks for a while before steeling ourselves for the climb back up. 

It turned out that getting back up the hill wasn't too bad after all, and we decided to head inland to pick up the tarmaced road for our return route. I experimented with making a time lapse video on my GoPro once we got onto a better road. It isn't a particularly good video, but I know what to do to make better ones in the future. 

We stopped to eat the sandwiches I'd been carrying round all morning on a bench in a children's playground of all places. Fortunately there weren't any children in it at the time. I was looking forward to the ride back, as I knew it was all downhill on smooth roads. What I hadn't considered was the wind we had to cycle into, which had picked up and made it feel like we were cycling up a slight incline the whole way back, which was upsetting. 

We finally had an ice cream back at Club la Santa, sitting in the sun by the pool until the sun went behind a big cloud. At that point we stomped off back to our apartment grumpily to pack our things ready for our return home. We spent the evening having a few drinks and an all you can eat buffet, and then feeling sorry for ourselves about going home. 

I'm writing this on the plane on the way home. Our transition from apartment to aeroplane was the quickest and most straightforward I've ever known, and I even managed to have a laugh and a joke with the man scanning our hand luggage, who thought my sports massage balls were some apples, and then wanted a demonstration! The only downside is the group of women sitting directly behind us, who appear to be in their 20s or 30s, but if I hadn't looked for myself I would have assumed they were all hyperactive 7 year olds. Never mind, it's only a 4 hour flight and I've got my earphones in. 

Our holiday has been one of the best we've had for a long time, and I feel like we've both relaxed much more than we normally manage to. Must be the yoga. We have already talked about returning early next year. 

So for anyone thinking they might like to try Club la Santa themselves, here's a few pearls of wisdom that might help you.

Club la Santa is a sports resort, not a beach or party resort. If you want to lie in the sun on the beach or party into the night then you'll be disappointed. However, if you want a sports holiday then you'll love it. There are over 30 sports you can do, with all facilities and equipment included in the accommodation price, with coached or guided sessions for most sports. Athletics, swimming, ball games, cycling, yoga/pilates... - everything you could imagine. There are fancy bikes available to pay extra to hire, although the free ones are fine for recreational cycling, albeit a bit creaky and clunky sometimes, mainly due to insufficient lubing in my opinion. There is also a watersports centre on site on the sea water lagoon with kayaks, stand up paddle boards and windsurfing. The only things we have done this trip that weren't included in the price were the scuba diving and the sea kayaking excursion. There are other paid for excursions available from the resort, like volcano tours, a catamaran trip, surfing lessons etc but we didn't do any of them so can't comment on them. 

There is a huge mix of nationalities working and staying at Club la Santa - mainly Europeans. Everyone seemed to get on well and English is the common language. For once we didn't feel bad about not being able to speak the local language, because there isn't really one on the resort. 

Club la Santa is on the west coast of Lanzarote, which tends to have a lower temperature and stronger winds all year round in comparison to the rest of the island. We've come at probably the coldest time of year, and it has been like cool British summertime without the rain. It's pretty self contained, with all the apartments and suites being self catering, and there are several restaurants on site plus a supermarket. The restaurants and supermarket are fairly expensive compared with the ones in tourist destinations like Playa Blanca or Puerto del Carmen. The nearest town is La Santa, which is about half an hour's walk (there are taxis available too). This is a small town with a few restaurants and a small supermarket, all of which are a bit cheaper than on the resort. 

The apartments are quite basic by most people's standards, although we found ours to be just fine. There's no TV in the apartments but there are plenty in the bars, so long as you like watching sport. The self catering facilities are fairly basic - a 2 burner hob, microwave, kettle and toaster, plus a decent size under counter fridge and a good range of pots and pans etc. 

We stayed in a 2 bed "comfort" apartment which was the cheapest option for us. It was modern and looked like it had been renovated within the last few years. I've read a few reviews of people complaining their apartments were very basic and dated, so I don't know if we're just easily pleased, or whether the larger apartments are not as good or haven't been renovated yet.

There's no dress code in the evenings, and people just wander around in sports wear. Next time we come we won't bother with any casual clothes, and will just bring more sports stuff instead. It was a bit chilly in the evenings, and most of the time in the apartment (they're designed to keep cool, and there's no heating or air conditioning) and we wished we'd brought some snuggly tracksuit bottoms. 

 

My first yoga session

Monday 23rd January 2017

Club la Santa, Lanzarote 

We managed to get up in time for Morning Gymnastics today. This is a Club la Santa tradition going back about 30 years, which involves everyone who wants to gathering round and doing choreographed aerobics and various stretches for 15 minutes, to a soundtrack that has apparently been the same for the whole 30 years! The call to prayer begins with Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" and then goes on to include Chariots of Fire, plus a few other instrumental songs that Claire is desperately trying to identify so she can play them every morning at home. No, I'm not joking. There are numerous videos on YouTube if you're interested. 

I wish we'd made the effort every day, as it was a good way to start the morning, and a good warm up for our run. We'd decided to go running along the same trail we cycled down yesterday. It was only a short run (60 minutes) but it was a bit more of a struggle than usual, especially for Claire after her intervals session the day before. However, I have since found out that she was stopping to take selfies, which probably explains why she kept falling behind. 

 

I was wearing my Adidas trainers, instead of my new Hoka trainers, and could tell the difference straight away. The Hokas are designed to be mega cushioned, to minimise impact and therefore injury. I hadn't realised before today what a good job they were doing. My knee was hurting a bit when we got back, which I put down to the change of shoes.

After a late breakfast we headed off to yoga. I had never done yoga before, but I managed okay I think. Our instructor lived up to my stereotype of a yoga instructor, by being endlessly flexible and having one of those soothing voices that made you think that you were good at yoga, even if you were terrible. More by luck than judgement, I had managed to position myself near someone who was even less flexible and even worse at balancing than me! And I'm not talking about Claire. The session lasted for an hour, during which we did some really good stretches of just about every body part, but especially hips and hamstrings. My favourite part was the last 5 or 10 minutes when we had to lie on our yoga mats in the sun and relax. I could have stayed there all day. 

We eventually got ourselves down to the swimming pool in the afternoon, to put the GoPro to work filming each other swimming. This is so we can compare our videos with animated videos I have of ideal swimming technique. I was not sure how much help this would be, but having reviewed our recordings, it is probably the most useful thing I have ever done to try and improve my swimming. I could see straight away that I was holding my head too high, and lifting it out of the water far too much to breathe. Plus various other things. I won't bore you with the videos, but here's a still from one of them. What is my hand doing all the way out there??

 

We had hoped to get onto the Aerial Relaxation session this afternoon, which is like Aerial Yoga, but without the yoga. Unfortunately it was fully booked, so we settled for relaxing with some beers instead. 

Tomorrow we have booked mountain bikes from 8am to 3pm and are heading the other way along the coast towards the volcano national park. It is our last day here tomorrow, so you can expect a grumpy tone to the final blog. 

The Birdwatching Bike Tour

Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd January 2017

Club la Santa, Lanzarote

We were busy on Saturday but not in a particularly blogworthy way. We did my long run for my marathon training, and Claire went to an Aerial Yoga session, which I decided to skip as I haven't really done yoga before, so I didn't think doing my first session suspended in the air would be a very good idea. So I did the laundry instead, as things were getting critical on the clothing front. Then later on we played two rounds of crazy golf, both of which were won smugly by Claire. 

Today (Sunday) we were up earlier than usual as we'd booked mountain bikes from 8am-12noon. I was relieved that the bikes had a quick release saddle clamp, which would allow me unlimited saddle height adjustments without an allen key. After our last ride this was very important to me. 

The bikes looked a bit sorry for themselves, and could have done with a wash and some TLC. I spent a while oiling their chains and derailleurs and clip in pedals, after which we all felt a lot better. Except Claire, who was moaning that I'd spent enough time tinkering with bikes and it was about time we started riding them. 

The original plan was to go looking for some strange birds called Houbara Bustards on some trails a little inland. These birds are not particularly exciting to look at but they are rare, plus they sound like they should be in a Tarantino film. However, almost as soon as we left, I spotted a trail heading north along the coast which looked much nicer, so we followed that instead. We made quite slow progress to start with as we are both used to cycling on roads rather than trails covered in sand and lumps of dried up lava and were a bit cautious. In fact, we were so cautious that it took us a couple of miles to overtake the runner who had joined the trail at the same time as us!!

 

We cycled about 7 miles to a village called Famara, where we stopped and spent some time watching an egret and a curlew. 

 

 

 

Then we headed back the same way we'd come as we had received some secret intelligence that there were some spoonbills hanging around near the Club la Santa lagoon. 

We spotted a hoopoe perched on a telegraph wire just as we were leaving the village.

 

We made quicker progress on the way back as we were both a lot more confident on the trail and were whizzing over all the chunks of dried up lava, although still treating deep sand with caution after a few near misses. On the way back we passed Michelle Vesterby and Camilla Pedersen who are professional triathletes and were heading out for a run together on the same trail. 

We made our way down to the other side of the lagoon where the sea comes in and spent an hour looking for birds there. We eventually spotted the spoonbills, who were hiding round the other side of a little island, and seemed to be rather sleepy and were hiding their bills in their wings most of the time. 

 

 

We also saw a snipe (long billed bird below) and some other cute smaller birds. 

 

 

 

We returned the bikes at about 11:30am as we were ravenous, and went for lunch. 

After lunch it was time for Claire to regret her victory at crazy golf by being resoundingly beaten 5-0 at Badminton. 

We went to a running technique session in the late afternoon, which told us some stuff that we knew already, but a few new things too, and we also learnt some running exercises to do while we're cleaning our teeth. After that, Claire stayed on for the intervals session, which I decided to give a miss as my back was a bit achey, so I went to the stretching area in the gym instead, where Michelle and Camilla were working out in the weights room!

Tomorrow we are going to go to the "morning gymnastics" session at 8am (not as difficult as it sounds), I am booked onto my first yoga class (on the floor), and we are going to do the swimming videos so we can see for ourselves how bad we are.

Sea Kayaking Tour

Friday 20th January 2017

Papagayo Coast, Lanzarote

We were eagerly up at 7am today ready for our sea kayaking trip on the south coast near Playa Blanca. I'd somehow come across the www.seakayakinglanzarote.com webpage a few months ago - I think Facebook suggested it to me. It looked like a pretty good setup so about a month ago I booked an excursion with them during our holiday. 

We were told that today looked like the best day for weather, wind and waves, and we met up at a black sand and stone beach on the Papagayo coast. Our hosts were called Juan and Sarah - Juan being an accomplished sea kayaker originally from mainland Spain, and Sarah a rowing coach from Glasgow. The sea looked quite scary from the beach, with waves breaking on the shore and a few metres out to sea, but Juan assured us that although there was a big swell, we would have no problems launching and then paddling round the coast. 

I was relieved that we were provided with tough, plastic, pretty much indestructible boats, which turned out to be very stable and also matched my blue outfit. Juan and Sarah had fibreglass boats, which are lighter and prettier but easier to break. 

 

Juan demonstrated on Sarah how we were going to get past the waves and out to sea. This involved waiting for a break in the swell and waves, then Juan pushing the boat out and Sarah paddling as fast as possible. There seemed to be a science to the timing of the waves as there were periods when there were no waves breaking so we could make a dash for it. We all made it out with no problems and were soon off round the coast. The sea wasn't rough, but there was a lot of swell so the boats were moving up and down a lot. At times it looked like a massive wave was going to bear down on us from out at sea, but no such thing happened as the water was too deep. Waves only break when the swell hits shallow water. 

 

 

 

As we paddled further along, the sea got a bit choppy as the waves were bouncing off the cliffs and coming back out to sea! After my experience in Bala lake in the summer (instant capsize in choppy windy conditions) I was a bit apprehensive, but everything was fine. We had to paddle quite far out to get round the headland at Punta del Papagayo, as there were rocks, which made the sea shallower there, and therefore made the waves break in quite a scary way further out. 

 

 

We landed at a small beach by Lanzarote's only campsite (which looked awful), landing being pretty much the reverse of launching. Then we kitted up in wetsuits and snorkel masks to go and check out the marine life. 

I'd never been snorkelling before, but found it to be pretty easy most of the time. The most important thing is not to try and breathe through your snorkel when the top of it is under water. I learnt my lesson after the first time. I was surprised at how many fish there were just a few metres down. We saw a lot of the same fish that we saw when we were diving, plus some black and white stripy fish, and I'm convinced a saw a Nemo fish even though they only live in the Pacific. I took my GoPro with me on its special floating hand hold, and managed to get some shots under the water. The GoPro seems like a pretty good piece of kit although I think the photographer could do with some improvement. A selection of the less bad photos is below. 

   

 
Below- can you spot the Nemo fish? 

 

 

 

After snorkelling we had some lunch, provided by our hosts, which was probably the nicest lunch we've had since arriving. Sliced melon, followed by a salad of tomato, avocado, walnuts, local goats cheese and something a bit like chorizo but nicer, with fresh bread. It took a while to warm up after the snorkelling but the sun was out and we found a spot out of the wind so we were dry and warm by the time we needed to head back. 

 

The return leg was a bit harder than the outbound leg as the wind was against us. The sea seemed a bit more choppy but that might have been my imagination. Landing was a bit tricky as the waves were playing up and we were landing onto a quite rocky beach, but we made it under Juan's instruction.

 

 

We had a great day out, if a little nerve wracking (for me - Claire wasn't bothered by any of the scary sea things). The snorkelling was amazing, not quite as good as diving but it does require less skill and money. We were in safe hands with Juan, who obviously knew the sea very well, and could anticipate what was to come. I felt safe in the knowledge that even if I did capsize, he would be there in a flash and fish me out again. I was pleased that this did not get tested though. 

We have four full days left of our holiday, which we intend to kick off with a long run, probably in the rain tomorrow. 

Exploring the Volcanos

Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th January 2017

Club la Santa, Lanzarote

We went for a 60 minute run first thing on Wednesday, which was of note only because in the last 10 minutes or so we saw a lady running towards us, and as she reached us said excitedly "you're Twinkles aren't you?!". By this she meant that we were also part of a large Facebook group of female triathletes called Team Twinkle. We stopped for a chat, with all of us simultaneously reaching for the pause button on our Garmin watches. The lady's name was Karen, and she was rather sad about having to head home the following day. We were impressed when we saw that she was still running about 2 hours later when we headed out to look at the volcanoes. 

We weren't really sure which road we'd been driven down on the way to diving, but we narrowed it down to two roads which might go past the volcanoes. Needless to say, we picked the wrong one first, not that it was a problem as it was a nice drive and we came across a gang of camels all lined up and waiting to take tourists up a sandy path up one of the volcanoes. I think Claire was tempted to go for a camel ride, but I wasn't, as they smelt funny (like a cross between horse and sheep), and I felt a bit sorry for them as they all had muzzles made of fence wire on. Plus, I'd rather walk up a volcano myself than be carried by a camel. 

 

So we carried on driving, and worked our way back along the road we should have taken in the first place. We parked up in a little car park near to our target volcano - Volcan el Cuervo, which was the first volcano on the island to start erupting the last time the volcanos were active about 250 years ago. It made a right mess by the look of the surrounding area. We were surrounded by dried up lava for as far as the eye could see, which apparently had obliterated a few villages when it was first spewed out of the volcano. 

 

We walked round the outside of the volcano clockwise, fairly briskly as I hadn't put a warm enough top on. When we were about 3/4 of the way round we followed a path off to the right which led inside the crater. The outpouring of lava had been particularly destructive because part of the crater wall had collapsed, causing loads of lava to suddenly come flooding out onto the plain. It was through this missing section that we were able to easily walk inside the volcano. 

 

 

We had a sandwich and some crisps sitting on a large volcanic rock in the crater, which wasn't very comfortable to be honest as these chunks of dried up lava seem to be quite spiky. After that we headed back to the welcome warmth of the car. 

We stocked up on cheap food at a supermarket on the way back, so tonight's eat in dinner only cost about €5 compared to last night's €15 or so from the onsite shop. Then we popped into a bike shop in La Santa village that I'd been eyeing up. It actually wasn't that exciting as bike shops go - we're a bit spoilt back home with a whole host of easily accessible shops and websites. Plus there was something slightly odd about the lady who worked there. I did manage to get a bargain sunglasses retainer which I was pleased about though. 

By the time we got back to the apartment it was getting on a bit and Claire was complaining about her cold. She decided she was having a nap instead of going swimming, and rather than be good and go swimming on my own, I had a nap too. I didn't get much sleep due to all the coughing, sniffing and sneezing though. 

Today (Thursday) Claire had a lie in due to The Cold whilst I went for a 5 mile run on my own first thing. I didn't see anyone interesting this time, although I did spot a Great Grey Shrike perched on a rock. By the time I got back, Claire was feeling a lot better and had decided she was going to take part in the windsurfing lesson rather than take photos of me falling in. 

We spent half an hour doing windsurfing theory and practicing what to do with the sail whilst still on dry land. I could tell it was not going to go well. Then we got kitted up in wetsuits and carried our boards and sails down to the water. I was nearly blown away when the wind caught my board while I was carrying it!

Then it was time to try and put the theory into practice. I fell in almost straight away, and was glad of my wetsuit. Fortunately, it was fairly easy to get back on as the boards have big fins on the bottom and a handy rope on the sail which helps with pulling yourself back up. I never really got the hang of it and was ready to get out by the end of the session as I was getting a bit frustrated. Claire was doing a bit better than me until someone crashed into her  and knocked her off her board towards the end, from which she has developed a massive bruise all up her shin.

 

 

We had showers and lunch and then went out in the car to have a look at the North of the island. We were hoping to spot some interesting birds, but I think the wind and the few rain showers were keeping them away. Some of the roads were quite hair raising, with hairpin bends and big drops, but we made it safely to Orzola, where some huge cliffs mark the northernmost point. 

 

 

We went for a stroll along the coast, which was quite tough going as we were walking through loads of dried up lava, which was difficult underfoot and very uncomfortable to hold onto for support. There were a lot more plants growing up this end of the island, and we wondered if this lava was the result of earlier eruptions. Either way, it was no less spiky than the more recent stuff we saw yesterday, as I found out when I brushed my leg against a rock and ripped my trouser leg open! I was worried that my leg would have suffered some terrible injury underneath, but fortunately I got away with a few scratches. 

 

We took the main roads back, which was quicker, and went straight out for dinner when we got back. 

Tomorrow we're off on a sea kayak tour in the far south of the island. Once again, I'm hoping to see sea turtles and dolphins. 

My first sea dive

Tuesday 17th January 2017

Club la Santa, Lanzarote

Today was a very exciting day, which I am now hoping to bore you about in not just words but embedded photos too, using a new app that I have downloaded to hopefully make my holiday blogging less stressful for me and prettier for my dear readers. 

We got up at 7:30am, had a quick breakfast, and then hotfooted it over to the dive centre for 8:30am to set off for our sea dive. Despite the fact that I had been worrying about all sorts of worst case scenarios (mainly to do with the pressure building up in my ears and causing some sort of skull explosion), I'd managed to sleep well. Claire's cold was still there but not too bad and she felt ok to do the dive. 

We were the only two booked on to the dive, which we were pleased about. Our instructor was called David, and had qualified as a diving instructor at the same place as Claire - Emperor Divers in Egypt. So I was pretty quiet during the drive to the the dive site while David and Claire chatted about "back in the day". 

Our route took us through Timanfaya national park, which is entirely made up of dormant volcanoes and dried up lava. David pointed out a few volcanos in particular, including one where you can walk right inside the crater. He also pointed out some of the dried up lava which was a particularly rare type, and only found in Lanzarote and Hawaii. Two big Ironman triathlon islands!

Our dive was in a clamshell shaped cove called Playa Chica (Little Beach) at Puerto del Carmen, which is the opposite side of the island to La Santa, and is generally a lot warmer and less windy. 

 

David sent us off to the toilets with a warning that if we weed in our wetsuits then we would have to buy them, and then we got kitted up and staggered down to the sand, weighed down by all our kit, not to mention the belts of lead weights. 

 

And then after a short delay while we struggled to get our fins on, and David checked that I could breathe through my regulator with my face in the water, we were off. I was even more buoyant than I was for the pool dive, and I had to have three extra lead weights put in my pockets! Even Claire needed one today. I soon relaxed about the exploding skull worries, when I managed to pop my ears with no problems at all ("equalise" in dive speak). 

 

 

Plus, I was soon too distracted by fish to be worrying about things. My ears very kindly let me know when they needed popping by hurting a bit every now and then.

I was surprised by the amount and variety of fish down there, as Claire had implied that there weren't many fish around the volcanic islands that she'd been to before. 

 

 

Above - some cuttlefish. The one on the right is having some dinner in the form of a scorpion fish.

 

A cute fish that we can't remember the name of (above).

 

 

The fish with the pretty blue fins is a Canary Damselfish. 

 

A Rainbow Wrasse (above)

 

A Barracuda (above) - over a metre long!

 

Some young Yellowfin Trevally - these were very lively and were dancing round in front of us. 

 

An Arrowhead Spider Crab posing in front of a sea anemone.

I've saved the most exciting fish until last, although we actually saw it within the first five or ten minutes of the dive. Look carefully as it's good at hiding. 

 

 

It's an Angel Shark, which I have since found out is on the critically endangered list of animals! As you can see, we were able to get pretty close to her without bothering her. I'm less than a metre away to give you an idea of scale. Angel Sharks hide out like this one is until something they fancy eating goes near it's mouth (which is underneath), and then they pounce. I'd been assured beforehand that divers weren't on the menu, not even for a taste. YouTube later suggested otherwise, although to be fair if I was the Angel Shark in the video, I'd have nipped the snorkeller if he'd been poking me like that. 

 

We were under water for about 50 minutes. I have no idea where we went at all as my sense of direction doesn't seem to work under water. David told us afterwards that we'd been along both sides of the cove and round to the other side of the rocks on the left. We went down to over 11 metres, which I would have been very worried about beforehand, but it turned out to be fine, and didn't feel any different to 2 metres down. Besides, I had two instructors with me, what could possibly have gone wrong?

We had a quick sandwich and a drink before heading back to La Santa. All the photos were taken by David, and transferred to a memory stick for a reasonable sum back at the ranch.

We spent the afternoon kayaking on the lagoon in sea kayaks rather than the general purpose kayaks. They felt a bit more wobbly to me but I managed to stay upright. All good practice for our forthcoming sea kayaking tour in a few days. 

 

 

Then we went for a quick swim in the lagoon in our wetsuits. We did more messing around with my new GoPro camera than swimming. 

 

Tomorrow morning I had better go for a run, and then we might go up a volcano before our intermediate open water swimming lesson in the afternoon.